US blocks €2.5mn flood aid relief to Iran - MP Hosseini says

As the MP quoted head of Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) as saying in a meeting at the Parliament, the US has obstructed €2.5 million aid from International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to flood-stricken towns and villages.

“However, the US has blocked €2.5 million flood aid relief saved for Iran at ICRC‎," he added.

The MP warned that the international committee has vowed to help Iran in this regard but in case it does not cooperate, the country will take regarded legal steps.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has dismissed the claims prompted by United States Secretary of State Michael Pompeo regarding Washington’s readiness to help Iran’s flood-stricken people.

In a statement published in early April, Zarif said, “Secretary Pompeo and other US officials – who have with their economic terrorism endeavored to target each and every Iranian, and even tried to obstruct efforts by expatriate Iranians to make donations to the accounts of the Iranian Red Crescent – are well-advised to address the calamities of disaster-struck Americans who have been suffering from natural disasters for months, instead of trying to take abnormal and politically-driven advantage of the suffering of human beings afflicted by natural disasters.”

In late May-Early April, devastating floods hit 400 villages and cities in 15 provinces, including Khouzestan. Some 78 roads linking cities and 2,199 roads connecting villages have been blocked by the floods and some 84 bridges are destructed in the flood-stricken areas.